DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
Solicitation of Applications for Membership on
Public Advisory Committee for Trademark Affairs
AGENCY: Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: The Patent and Trademark Office seeks five members for the
Public Advisory Committee for Trademark Affairs. Each member will serve
a three-year term. A member must be an organization that is
representative of the intellectual property community, e.g., a bar
group, an intellectual property organization, a business organization or
an academic institution. Interested organizations should respond by a
letter that includes the information requested in the Supplementary
Information section of this notice.
DATES: Submit applications on or before January 29, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Mail letters of request to participate in the Public Advisory
Committee for Trademark Affairs to The Honorable Q. Todd Dickinson,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Deputy Commissioner of
Patents and Trademarks, United States Patent and Trademark Office,
Washington, D.C. 20231.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sharon Marsh, Trademark Administrator,
by telephone at (703) 308-8910 ext. 45; by fax at (703) 308-9395; or by
e-mail to sharon.marsh@uspto.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This Committee is chartered under the Federal
Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463). Its purpose is to advise the
Patent and Trademark Office (Office) on ways to increase the Office's
efficiency and effectiveness and to provide a continuing flow of
insights and perceptions from the private sector to the Office in the
areas of domestic and international trademark law.
The Office amended the charter of the Committee in 1996 to make the
Committee more diverse and more representative of trademark owners,
trademark practitioners and the Intellectual Property community as a
whole. Accordingly, the Commissioner will select five representative
organizations from among intellectual property organizations, bar
groups, business-related organizations and academia. The five
organizations whose terms will expire on December 31, 1998, are not
precluded from responding to this notice.
Each organization's letter to the Commissioner should explain the
nature, size and characteristics of the organization and what insights
and perspective it would bring to the work of the Committee.
The members will be selected based on the following criteria: (1)
organization's familiarity with the operations of the Patent and
Trademark Office relating to trademarks and trademark rules, trademark
practices, and the administration of the trademark operations; (2) the
organization's experience practicing before the Patent and Trademark
Office in trademark matters; and (3) evidence of the organization's
interest in trademark practices, such as established committees designed
to improve trademark operations, or legal education activities regarding
trademark practices.
December 22, 1998 Q. TODD DICKINSON
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce and
Deputy Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks